Before the Ever After
by Haely Potter
Summary: Dimension cannons are quite linear. They can get you anywhere and anywhen in a different universe. But once there, you should stay there and abstain from time travel or they can't take you back. This provides Rose the chance to stay with the Doctor when her dimension cannon dies on her after landing in a paradox and having it broken around her, leaving her a year in the past.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: pink. lili. flower prompted me for a fic in which Rose found the Doctor while he was still traveling with Martha. It's been done before (one of the best of them is _The Long and Winding Road_ by Isilien Elenihin here on ) but I hope to make my own with my own twists. This will be sort of a rewrite of season 4 and I know the epilogue will touch the beginning of season 5 but I will not continue it after, just so you know. (But if someone wants to write a sequel in my stead, you're more than welcome to do so after telling me)

Chapter 1

Jumping universes was getting daunting. It wasn't even the physical side of it that was getting harder, no. It was the places Rose landed in that took their toll.

Why, just last timeline she landed in had a warped timeline in which the Doctor had died instead of meeting Donna Noble. She'd righted that world, of course, but seeing her manic Doctor, the one that bounced, the one that never ever stood still, lying so still in the UNIT morgue… well, it hadn't sat well with her. And the TARDIS, dying without her Time Lord, so tired but still trying to help.

In the timeline before that stars had been out for a while already and the Centurion she talked to (who seemed to stare at her, like he recognized her) said that time was running out of the Universe.

And the timeline before that, time had stood stagnant, all of history happening at the same time. She heard there was a soothsayer who said time was dying but she'd been pulled back to Pete's world when it got obvious this wasn't when she was supposed to be.

This time they'd narrowed the date to late May, early June of 2009, but they'd still wanted her to do recon and sent her to early May.

She landed and immediately checked the timeline she'd landed in and cursed. "What the hell is wrong with this? Why can't I get to the right timeline? Is it so wrong that I want to save every bleedin' universe? No, don't answer that," she told the closest person to her, a young black woman who was, for some reason, kneeling. "Last time the Doctor was dead because he didn't meet Donna fuckin' Noble. The time before that, time was runnin' out of the universe because apparently the universe had become a buggerin' sieve. And the time before that, time was dyin'. Now, I'm in a fuckin' paradox. At least the date's right… An' I'm on planet Earth. Whoopee."

"Rose," she heard a strangled voice say behind her and whirled around to see Jack, her Captain Jack Harkness, tied up. He was also a bit messed up, his hair in disarray and face covered in muck and he smelled like he hadn't had a shower in ten years.

"I thought you didn't like the BDSM scene," she said mildly. "What are you doin' tide up? I thought it was the Doctor who had that kink."

"It's not voluntary," he joked weakly before his eyes widened in fear. "Rose! Behind you!"

She ducked automatically and got her magnetic screwdriver out, pointing it behind her and catching whatever it was that was used to shoot her. She turned around and eyed the blond man. "Be careful! You could take someone's eye out with that. Now you just wait," she said and dropper the thing, stepping on it deliberately. "I'm busy." She turned back to Jack who was staring at her with wide eyes and slack jaw. "Why, if Sarah Jane an' the Doctor were here, I'd think this was _This is My Life_."

"The Doctor is here," said the black woman beside her. "He's just... not talking right now."

Rose turned to her. "Why? Is he gagged? Wouldn't be the first time someone took offence of his incessant babblin' an' gagged him."

"No, the Master," the black woman nodded to the seething blond man, "aged his body to that of all his nine hundred years," she then nodded to the cage where a very human looking Yoda stood, looking at her with the Doctor's brown eyes. His ears seemed comically large for his head and he was bald. He was still in his pinstripes but now they seemed more like pinstriped pajamas than a suit. He seemed to be leaning towards Rose slightly, and staring at her with disbelief. "And he's trying to save energy, I think."

"Well, it's good to know you'd still be cute if you aged like a human," Rose told him with a smile, "but I think I'd prefer you in a body of under sixty. Can't really run like that, can you?" She turned around to the black woman. "Now, what were you doin'? I can tell you're the new companion. What's the plan?"

"A gun," the woman said with a mysterious smile.

"What about it?" asked the Master.

"A gun in four parts?" the woman laughed and Rose got what she was on about. The Doctor would never ask someone to kill someone else.

"Yes, and I destroyed it," answered the Master, obviously not getting it.

"A gun in four parts scattered across the world? I mean, come on, did you really believe that?"

"Sounds like a plot of a classical novel," mused Rose. "The hero has to travel the world in search for the parts of a weapon that will end the unspeakable evil. Like Harry Potter, searchin' for Voldemort's horcruxes. The never endin' campin' trip all the while bein' hunted."

"Wait, is that what happens in the last book?" asked the woman, looking at Rose before remembering where they were and looking back at the Master.

"Except the Doctor would never ask you to kill someone," Rose continued. "Which makes him better than Dumbledore."

"It doesn't matter," snarled the Master. "I've got her exactly where I want her."

"But I knew what Professor Docherty would do. The Resistance knew about her son," revealed the woman. "I told her about the gun so she'd get me here at the right time."

"Oh, but you're still going to die," the Master answered with conviction.

"I'd be more curious as to hear what she was really doin', globetrottin'," said Rose thoughtfully.

The Master glanced at her. "Tell me," he demanded from the woman.

"I told a story, that's all. No weapons, just words. I did just what the Doctor said. I went across the continents all on my own. And everywhere I went, I found the people, and I told them my story," the woman said. "I told them about the Doctor. And I told them to pass it on, to spread the word so that everyone would know about the Doctor."

"Thing is, there are still probably other companions out there," Rose said thoughtfully. "An' after hearin' of what she did, they did the same, spread their own stories of the Doctor."

"Faith and hope?" sneered the Master. "Is that all?"

"No, because I gave them an instruction, just as the Doctor said," the woman said and stood up. "I told them that if everyone thinks of one word, at one specific time…"

"Nothing will happen," the Master said, tone condescending. "Is that your weapon? Prayer?"

"Right across the world, in word, just one thought at one moment, but with fifteen satellites," she declared.

"What?"

"The Archangel Network," Jack said, hands in his pockets, having picked the handcuffs.

"A telepathic field binding the whole human race together, with all of them, every single person on Earth, thinking the same thing at the same time. And that word is Doctor," she said just as the countdown hit zero.

The Doctor's cage started to glow and the small, withered Time Lord inside it started to deage.

"Stop it," demanded the Master. "No, no, no, no, no, you don't."

The humans all around the room started muttering the Doctor's chosen name, as did the crowds on the screens, and with a smile, Rose joined them, thinking of her Doctor.

"Stop this right now. Stop it!" shouted the Master, all the while humans across the Earth were chanting "Doctor."

The Doctor had deaged to looking just one hundred. "I've had a whole year to tune myself into the psychic network and integrate with its matrices," he revealed, sounding just like the Doctor Rose knew.

"I order you to stop!" screamed the Master, trying to make himself heard over the chanting.

"The one thing you can't do. Stop them thinking," the Doctor said, looking like himself again. "Tell me the human race is degenerate now, when they can do this."

The black woman ran to the other humans in the room and Rose spared them a glance, guessing they were her family from the way they hugged each other.

"No!" the master screamed in denial, reaching for something in his pocket that wasn't there.

The Doctor levitated, still encased in the energy field, looking at the Master with sad eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Kill them!" the Master screamed at the armed guards who didn't obey. He then turned to the Doctor. "You can't do this. You can't do it. It's not fair!"

"And you know what happens now," the Doctor said, ignoring the Master's words.

"No! No! No! No!" the master denied as the Doctor floated towards him.

"You wouldn't listen."

"No!" The Master stumbled down the stairs to get away from the Doctor.

"Because you know what I'm going to say."

"No," the Master denied weakly as he curled into a ball in the corner he'd driven himself in.

The energy field faded, setting the Doctor down gently and he went over to the cowering Time Lord, putting his arms around him. "I forgive you," Rose heard him say and smiled.

The Master wrenched himself away from the Doctor. "My children…"

Hurriedly the Doctor stood up. "Captain, the paradox machine!" he directed Jack.

"You men, with me!" he told three of the guards. "You, stay here!"

Rose watched Jack and three of the guards disappear to the hallway, the Doctor lunge at the Master who had something in his hands and disappear, and the woman and her family go to the bridge where the Master had stood. She didn't really know what had happened or what was going on, but at the moment everything was going to happen on the bridge, so she went there.

"The Master your husband?" she asked to woman in red, glancing at the wedding ring on her left hand.

"He was Harry," she said faintly. "I… Harry was charming, and he told me the truth. But… I didn't know how…"

"You didn't know how he could be?" asked Rose sympathetically, looking at her bruised eye.

The woman nodded.

"Psychopaths have been known to charm anyone they think they need," Rose said, ignoring the black family giving the woman in red the stink eye. "An' this psychopath happened to be alien on top of it, from a highly evolved psychic race. So, I've been out for a while, actually since the Battle of Canary Wharf. Could you fill me in?"

Just when she opened her mouth to answer, the flying thing they were in shuddered and the Doctor and the Master teleported back. "Everyone get down!" the Doctor shouted over the din. "Time is reversing!"

He then pulled Rose down with him, covering her with himself like no time had passed between them, and a small, warm smile stretched across her face. She was back with the Doctor!

After about thirty seconds, but she couldn't be sure, he'd said time was reversing and that would mess with anyone's perception of time, the thing they were in stopped shuddering and the Doctor jumped up, going over to the controls of the thing and looking out of the window.

"The paradox is broken!" he announced, twisting some of the controls. "We've reverted back! One year and one day, two minutes past eight o'clock in the morning!" He flew to a radio at the controls and tuned it.

_"This is UNIT central. What is going on there? We've just seen the President assassinated!"_ the person on the other side of the radio said.

"You see? Just after the President was assassinated but before the spheres arrived," the Doctor said. "Everything is back to normal. Planet Earth restored. None of it happened. The rockets, the terror that never was."

"What about the spheres?" the new companion wanted to know.

"Trapped in the End of the Universe," answered Doctor.

"But I can remember it," the companion's mother said weakly.

"We're at the eye of the storm," explained the Doctor. "We're the only ones who'll ever know." Then his eyes flickered to Rose who'd stood up. In a few steps he was standing in front of her. "Rose… how…"

"Dimension cannon," answered Rose, holding up her wrist computer. "Somethin' that uses the natural tears between universes. But… I seem to have arrived too early in your timeline. You won't have a clue what I'm talkin' about when I say the darkness is comin'. You don't even have Donna Noble with you yet. But, I've missed you," she said and threw her arms around him, bringing her face to his neck. (The smell of dust wasn't the best but considering the circumstances she'd found him in, she wasn't all that surprised. She'd never been so happy for the fact that Time Lords didn't sweat before. He'd probably smell worse than Jack...)

He flinched slightly at her hug before clutching her to him desperately, returning her hug tenfold. She heard him hum contently, nuzzling the junction of her neck and shoulder. She knew someone was trying to catch their attention, but she was just too happy to hug him to pay attention.

Eventually though, Jack broke through to them. "Doctor! You can reunite properly later!"

The Doctor and Rose let go of each other but immediately held hands, not wanting to go without the confirmation of the other's presence. "Yes Jack?"

"What do we do with him?" Jack asked, a hand on the Master's shoulder.

"We kill him," the companion's father demanded.

"We execute him," the companions – sister? – said coldly.

"No, no, that's not the solution," frowned the Doctor.

"Oh, I think so," the mother said, pointing a shaking gun at the Master. "Cause all those things… They still happened. Because of him… I saw them…"

The Doctor approached her carefully, walking down the stairs slowly as not to spook her.

"Go on," the Master goaded her. "Do it."

"Francine," the Doctor said gently, "you're better than him." She lowered the gun and turned to cry into his shoulder. The Doctor wrapped his arms around her for a moment before passing her onto her daughter.

"You still haven't answered the question," the Master said, seemingly relaxed. "What happens to me?"

"You're my responsibility from now on," the Doctor said. "The only Time Lord in existence."

Jack stepped away from the Master and towards the Doctor. "Yeah, but you can't trust him," he whispered loudly.

"No," agreed the Doctor with a normal voice. "The only safe place for him is the TARDIS."

"You mean you're just going to keep me?" asked the Master incredulously.

"Doctor, have you thought this through?" Rose asked. "A pet is an awful big responsibility. You need to play with him, feed him, give him a bath every day. You can't leave him alone for a couple days if an adventure happens to stretch for some time. You can barely keep yourself functional, what makes you think you can take care of him too?"

"I've got you, haven't I?" the Doctor asked, glancing at her over his shoulder. "If someone could make him better, it'd be you."

"I have my hands full with you," Rose joked back and was about to continue when a shot rang through the room. She looked around for the shooter and found the woman in the red dress, the Master's wife, holding the gun with steady hands and a blank look on her face.

The Doctor caught the Master as he crumbled to the floor and Rose rushed to their side, ripping the Master's shirt open and putting pressure on the wound. Her field first aid wouldn't be much use for long, especially with an abdominal wound, but she knew keeping pressure was important.

"There you go," the Doctor soothed him. "I've got you. I've got you."

"Always the women," the Master joked, looking pointedly at Rose.

"I didn't see her," the Doctor said apologetically.

"Dying in your arms. Happy now?"

"You're not dying. Don't be stupid. It's only a bullet wound. Just regenerate."

"No," he refused. Then he looked at Rose. "How… how do you make the drums go away?"

Rose looked up from the wound, frowning. "'Scuse me? What drums? But if you regenerate, maybe we can find out."

"No… no, I refuse… I won't be a pet…"

"C'mon! You've got to! It can't end like this. You and me, all the things we've done. Axons. Remember the Axons? And the Daleks. We're the only two left. There's no one else. Regenerate!" the Doctor pleaded, desperation in his voice. The same desperation Rose had heard on that day at Canary Wharf when she was falling towards the Void.

"How about that… I win. The drumming… Will it stay gone?" he asked, looking at Rose with eyes the same colour as the Doctor's before going limp in the Doctor's hold.

The Doctor pulled the Master's body closer, rocking back and forth and Rose was unsure of what to do. Before regeneration the Doctor had been all hot and cold about comfort, needing it and accepting it one minute, needing and getting angry at her for it in the next. There hadn't been many instances in which he'd needed comforting after regenerating as the Time War sort of... faded into background. There had been the time with Reinette, but Rose had refused to offer comfort for that, her own feelings of hurt and pride keeping her away. Then there was the time on Krop Tor when they'd thought TARDIS lost to them forever. They hadn't really had the time then, what with the Beast wreaking havoc on the sanctuary base.

But, she concluded, it'd be better for everyone if no one tried to separate the Doctor from the Master's body and therefore she enveloped both the Doctor and the Master in a hug, just as the Doctor released a scream of grief. Rose felt the Doctor's fingers grip her jacket and his other arm moved from the front of the Master to her back, squishing them both to him. She didn't offer any platitudes, from what she'd seen the Master was a real monster, so anything good she might say would be a lie, but he was still a Time Lord, a part of the Doctor's past before the Time War.

They sat there on the floor for a long time, the Doctor gripping both of them. Ultimately Rose was the first one to draw back.

"C'mon Doctor, lets sort this out so you can give him a proper funeral," she said, making him look up at her, eyes red from crying.

He looked at her searchingly, looking for something that wasn't there and it made him relax slightly, before he nodded and stood up, the Master's body still clutched to his chest. Rose thought him lucky the Master's last self had been four inches shorter than himself or it would have gotten awkward very quickly. "I'll take him to the TARDIS," he muttered, shuffling towards the doors.

Rose watched him go, hands now rusty brown with Time Lord blood, before turning to Jack, hands on her hips and an arched eyebrow. "Explain," she said simply in an authoritative voice.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

When the Doctor returned Rose had been caught up to current events by Jack and had been introduced to Martha and her family. Lucy, the Master's wife, had been apprehended and taken into UNIT custody. After that, things began to blur together for Rose but before long the Jones family had been packed back to Earth and UNIT had some sort of understanding of what had happened. Then her, Martha, Jack and the Doctor filed into the TARDIS and sent her to the time vortex for some good, old fashioned rest.

Rose whimpered when she first entered the TARDIS and found the remains of the Master's paradox machine still wired to the console. The nerve of that Time Lord to have her cannibalized like this... why he himself must have been quite uncomfortable, both with the paradox and the TARDIS' agony being broadcasted psychically. Admittedly she'd been more aware of the TARDIS after the Game Station but she was close to psi-null with very low levels of empathy, and even she could feel the TARDIS lingering distress. On the other hand, the TARDIS had brightened her lights and hummed slightly louder when they entered and the Doctor said something about the TARDIS having missed her and welcoming her home. She could tell he was telling the truth from the mental hug she received from the TARDIS.

She made her way to her room, Martha just on her heels. Martha stopped in front of a door a couple doors before Rose's and watched her. From the corner of her eye she saw Martha open her mouth to say something when she went to open her door before she sighed and rolled her eyes, going to her own room and closing the door with more force than absolutely necessary. Rose closed her own door and leaned against it.

She was home. In the TARDIS. With the Doctor.

Suddenly she remembered her dimension cannon and she looked at her wrist computer.

A blank screen greeted her.

She... wasn't where she'd arrived, timeline wise. She'd arrived in the paradox... the paradox had lasted maximum of five minutes after she'd entered it. When it ended... her dimension cannon became confused as to where it was... became useless...

She couldn't inform anyone she'd found the Doctor and would be there when the darkness came.

The Doctor was once again stuck with her.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Hello and sorry for the delay. I accidentally killed my computer a few weeks back and I had to rewrite this whole thing. I don't like it as much as I liked the first version, but if I don't get along with this story, and I don't feel like getting on with it until I have everything inbetween written, I feel like I'll lose the inspiration.

On other news, I'm moving to England for a year in a month. I'm AuPairing for a family in southern England and I will see Doctor Who season 8 when it's airing. How cool is that? (Even if I still won't see the Christmas special when it airs...) Here's to hoping the girl I'm looking after won't need too much looking after, she's turning five next year, so that I'd have a little more time to write than I'd otherwise have.

The lates chapter in Bending the Universe is my response to the 50th anniversary episode, so go read it if you're curious.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

Rose couldn't settle down. The bed was perfect as always, the air temperature was ideal, the amount of light was minimal. But something was keeping her from the arms of Morpheus.

She'd just once again shifted from her right side to her back when TARDIS informed her they'd landed somewhere and that the Doctor was going out with the Master's body.

With a sigh she rolled out of bed and pulled on the closest sneakers that had lain on the floor for over two years. The mauve dressing gown the Doctor had given her for her twentieth birthday was still over the back of a chair where she'd left it after having breakfast with the Doctor before they went to visit her mother for the last time. With it on, she left her room and made her way to the still cluttered console room and outside again.

Silently she watched as the Doctor built the pyre and set the Master's covered body on it once it was ready. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other and wrapped the dressing gown tighter around her against the wind when he finally lit the pyre.

She took his hand and they stood there, watching the fire catch on.

"How can you be here and not dance of joy?" the Doctor asked. "I'm sure Jack and Martha have filled you in by now."

"Death is never good," Rose shook her head. "That's the one thing you taught me, beside runnin'. But he was a Time Lord. I know what he meant to you even if I don't know your exact relationship. He was a part of your life before everythin'. He must have filled the silence inside your head."

"If someone had to survive the Time War, I would have chosen anyone but him," he admitted. "Well, him or the Rani. But… for a year I wasn't alone inside my head. For a year I wasn't the last. Now I'm alone again."

"But you're not," Rose said gently. "There's Martha and Jack and Sarah Jane… an' me. I know we're not Time Lords, but you're not alone, not really."

Silence enveloped them and Rose realized they were alone together for the first time since she came back. Before, Martha and Jack had been there to act as buffers and as reasons not to talk about what had happened before, of what she'd said the last time they'd seen each other.

"I never wanted to feel like this," he said, not looking at her. "I've never needed anyone. Not ever. Never wanted to need someone. I've wanted someone to show off for, someone to marvel at my intellect. Someone to show the Universe to. But you… you slipped through all my defenses. After nine hundred years of successfully avoiding too close emotional attachment, you come along, all pink and yellow and brave and clever and innocent. And in three days you came to mean more to me than the Earth. A stupid little ape. How did you do it? How, Rose?" He looked at her, unshed tears in his eyes.

Rose just listened to him, her eyes down, even though he called her a stupid ape again. He'd only called specifically her stupid when she'd caused a paradox. Yes, he'd apologized later and asked her if she only listened to him when he said something stupid, but it still didn't lessen the sting of his words now, of him making her less than she was.

"In the end it might have been better if you'd stayed in Pete's World. I wouldn't have to watch you wither and die. You'd always be there, out of reach yes, but there. I don't know what I'll do in seventy, eighty years when you eventually die and I know you're not there anymore, ever again. How am I supposed to go on, Rose? How am I supposed to move on with my life after you're gone? Tell me, because I have honestly no idea. I'm not even sure I would want to. What would be left for me to experience? I've done bungee jumping and other extreme sports, even the future ones. I've taken part of Olympics. I've written books. I've done music. I've painted and sculptured master pieces. I've had children and grandchildren. I've fought in wars and petitioned for peace. I've written laws and toppled governments. I suppose I could still save the dodo or join the Beatless but what would be the point? You wouldn't be there to smile at me or tell me I'm being rude. The last two years I got through by knowing that you were safe and living a reasonably happy life. But now… now you're here and I can't even give you a proper home or even a damn pet. I might regenerate into an old man tomorrow and people would ask you about your grandfather who you're traveling with."

Rose slapped him, hard.

"Do you really think I'm that shallow?" she asked him, looking him in the eyes. "Yes, it might take me some time to get used to the new you, but inside you'd still be the man who took my hand and told me to run! You'd still be the man who quoted the Lion King to the Sycorax! You'd be the same man who wore a stick of celery as boutonniere. You'd be the same man who played me a Gallifreyan folk tune on his recorder. You'd be the same adorable man who sniffed at me arrogantly before askin' me what I was doing in his TARDIS, his granddaughter on his arm and her teachers behind him. You'd be the same man who held a gun to my head and then put it down because he saw that the Dalek behind me wasn't a Dalek anymore. You'd be the same man who sent me to safety when it really mattered. Yes, you might not have that great hair anymore or you might have wrinkles or you might have a Scottish accent or you might like wearin' stilettos. But those things don't matter to me. Because even if you decide you don't want a physical relationship, I'm not goin' anywhere. What do you think "forever" meant? I'd stay right here, holdin' your hand, because you're still my best friend an' I don't want you to be alone, not ever. An' I might only have seventy, eighty years like you say, but I might also only have tonight. I might die tomorrow, next week or in a year." She took a step back, his and slipping from hers. She turned to walk back to the TARDIS.

"I do, you know," the Doctor called after her, the torch and the pyre creating bright spots of light and deep shadows on his face. "I do love you."

She turned back to look at him. "That was never the question, not with you."

"Then what is the question?" he asked, sounding somewhat desperate.

"Can you live with it? Can you live with lovin' a fragile and short lived human? Can you live with the constant fear of losin' me? Can you live with yourself after I die, if you haven't done anythin'? Or would it be another regret for you? I don't want you to regret anythin', but would you regret actin' on your feelings after I died?" she asked, voice calm. "Because I can't stop being human. An' to be human is to die."

Then she turned and walked back to the TARDIS.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

The Doctor stared at her mauve clad form until she disappeared into the TARDIS. He'd finally told her he loved her and she asked him if he could live with it.

She did bring up good points, he admitted. She was human and might die tomorrow and he wasn't always able to protect her, as her recent stint in the parallel world had proven. Could he live with memories of just three kisses with her? Well, two, he doesn't really count the Cassandra one. Which would hurt more? Losing the love of his life after a whole lifetime of loving? Or losing the love of his life after a lifetime of holding back?

But… could he live with her just as his best friend? Could he keep their relationship in the parameters of best friends? Could he stop calling her beautiful? Could he stop holding her hand? Could he watch her flirt with all sorts of pretty boys? Could he watch her night after night go to sleep to her own room? Could he watch her watch other women's children and still tell her no? Could he watch her live her life as the best friend of an alien? Could he risk watching her falling in love with someone else? Could he watch her grow bitter and eventually leave him even when she had nothing else to go back to? No children, no friends, no lover, no money, no home? Could he keep acting like he didn't love her now that he'd admitted it?

No, he realized. He couldn't. He wanted to call her beautiful every day of her life. He wanted to walk hand-in-hand with her wherever and whenever they were. He wanted the right to punch every pretty boy who thought to flirt with her. He wanted to watch her sleep in their room and on their bed, maybe even wake up with her in his arms sometimes. He wanted her to have his children, children with his flyaway hair and her smile or her nose and his eyes or her eyes and his mouth. He wanted to watch her as the wife of an alien (himself), as the mother of their half-alien children. He couldn't stand the thought of her falling in love with someone else but him. He couldn't watch her good heat shrivel up and die because he wouldn't give her what she needed, especially when she wouldn't need money nor an actual home as long as she stayed with him, and he wanted to be the lover and they could make new friends wherever they went and he wanted the children to be theirs. And now that he'd said it… he wanted to bond with her.

No, there was no going back.

He'd break the day she'd die.

He'd only walk away if she told him to and even then he'd make sure she was fine from the distance for the rest of her life.

But maybe… if they had children, if he'd have something of her still with him, he might somehow pull through after she'd died. (Human languages. So inadequate in describing time. They have no tense for the future past or the past future. Honestly.)

He watched the Master's pyre as it lit the clearing they were in.

Maybe there was hope for the Time Lords after all.

If he and Rose had at least five children, all of whom would have five children, and so on for five regenerations, there'd be 15 625 decedents, and enough genetic diversity for them to have healthy children with each other. Time Lord genetics were so much more dominant than almost any other species in the universe that even in five generations, they'd still be half Time Lords. And after a few generations of that, almost two million almost Time Lords would be zooming around Time and Space.

Maybe he should slow down some… He hadn't even told Rose he'd like to at least try a relationship with her and here he was planning the future of the race they'd have to procreate. And he'd just gone and decided they'd have at least five children…

He should talk to her before he decided anything else.

With that he threw the torch to the pyre and with a new spring in his steps walked to the TARDIS, jumping over the threshold.

It was like with his decision to attempt an actual romantic relationship with Rose, despite her mortality, the weight of the world had just disappeared from his shoulders.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

Martha couldn't relax. After a year of sleeping outside on her own, being hunted, even after knowing the bad guy had died… it was pretty hard. It didn't help that the bed was so soft after she'd spent a year sleeping on the ground.

Not that the last two years hadn't been enough of an emotional rollercoaster ride, what with meeting the Doctor, falling for him, having him ignore her completely, being on the run for a year from a maniac and then having the love of the Doctor's life reappear in his life. Thinking of it all would have kept her up anyway.

With a sigh she got up. Maybe tea would relax her enough to sleep?

Half-an-hour ago she'd heard Rose leave her room for some reason and she still wasn't back. Had she and the Doctor gone somewhere? Were they… reuniting properly, as Jack had called it?

As she waited for the tea to brew properly, she thought of the other woman. She wasn't what Martha had expected. She wasn't an unearthly beauty. She wasn't all knowing. She wasn't supernaturally strong. She couldn't fly by herself.

Her roots were showing, both in her dyed hair and in the way she spoke. If she remembered correctly from some of the Doctor's ramblings, she hadn't even finished school, let alone had a higher education. Her clothes, while quality products, were in a style Martha had come to associate with young mothers on estates. She was someone Martha would have walked past without caring either way before traveling with the Doctor. And she still wasn't someone Martha would have expected a nine-hundred-year-old alien to fall in love with.

But… the way Rose had tried to save the Master, even though she probably had an indication of what he was like… the way she let the Doctor hold her against the cooling body… the way she got him to take the Master's body away even though anyone could tell he'd just wanted to sit on the floor… the way she'd looked after the Master's wife before she was carted off… Martha liked to think of herself as kind, one of the reasons she wanted to become a doctor was her wish to help people, but Rose really set the bar high.

Now that she was back, would there be room for Martha? She had, admittedly, thought of leaving the Doctor after the whole Master thing had been sorted, but did she have a choice now? Would she even want to continue traveling with the Doctor and Rose as the third wheel? Because it was obvious Rose would be staying, there was no denying it.

Like there was no denying the Doctor's love for her. Or hers for him.

She remembered the conversation between the Doctor and Jack that she'd overheard in the End of the Universe, about how Rose had been trapped in the parallel world rather than just living there. And she had obviously come back as soon as she could, even after the Doctor had said it was impossible. That showed him just how much he knew, didn't it. Impossible indeed. A woman in love was perhaps the most stubborn thing in all of creation. And from the sound of it the Doctor really should have known better, Rose had come back from impossible circumstances before, having looked into the heart of the TARDIS.

Honestly, Martha silently admitted to herself, she'd never even had a chance with someone as in love as the Doctor. But maybe one day, she'd be on the receiving end of such love from someone else.

With a sigh she poured herself some tea and sat back down, the tea warming her hands as she looked at the calming liquid.

"May I have some tea to?" asked a voice from the door and Martha looked up to see Rose there, sneakers on her feet and a mauve dressing gown around her pajamas. She nodded and watched Rose prepare her tea, adding three lumps of sugar and a dash of milk, explaining with a grin that sweet tea would help her sleep. Then she sat across from Martha, who took the opportunity.

"So, how did you meet the Doctor?"

"He blew up my job," Rose answered solemnly before laughing. "And good riddance too. I hated that place. Some of the other girls I worked with were really mean all the time and to everyone. I sometimes wondered how they didn't get sacked but then I found out they were the owner's grandchildren and would someday inherit the whole shop. One of the older ones was sleepin' with the shop manager and that was the only reason she hadn't been sacked. Some of the guys and I had fun messin' with them all the time. Derek from IT was the practical joker. In fact, when the window dummies in the basement started to move, I thought it was him prankin' me. Anyway, when he didn't jump from behind some crates or somethin', and the dummies didn't stop comin' closer, I thought I'd die. I was just cowerin' against a wall when someone grabbed my hand and told me to run. It was the Doctor of course, come to blow up the signal relay on the roof and he'd just checked if there were humans inside before settin' it off. I was lucky, because I would have been the second one to die because of them. Wilson, the chief electrician, died before the Doctor got there to help him." She was lost in her memories for a few second before her eyes sharpened back on Martha. "What about you? How'd you meet him?"

"I was walking to work when this bloke in a tight suit walked up to me and took of his tie, saying "Like so." Then, I get to the hospital I was interning in and one of our practice patients looks exactly like the bloke on the street," explained Martha. "I told him it wasn't very smart of him to be running outside if he was in a hospital. He then asked what he'd done and I told him he'd taken off his tie. The bloke in the hospital bed, Mr. Smith, looked baffled and asked me what he'd done it for. Anyway, soon enough, there's this rain that went up and suddenly, we're on the moon with a Judoon platoon registering everything, looking for a humanoid alien."

Rose laughed. "The Doctor must've loved that!"

"Just about," Martha laughed too. "Did the Doctor stroke parts of the TARDIS when you first came on board?"

"You bet your pension on it! I was always like "Do you want to be alone?" when he started doin' it. Apparently he's done it for a long time, Sarah Jane told me about it," Rose told her. "And Sarah Jane is one of the Doctor's old companions. We didn't really get the best start, to be honest. She'd thought him dead for thirty years and then to find out he was alive and fine and with someone who's thirty-five years your junior… And me, I hadn't even thought he'd had others travelin' with him before me, so when I saw them all cozy catchin' up and bondin' over K-9, the robot dog the Doctor had given Sarah Jane… well, I felt threatened. The Doctor had regenerated not long before and now this new Doctor was ignorin' me in favor of this older lady when the old Doctor wouldn't have let me ten feet away. But next day the Doctor left me and Sarah Jane to work together and we started comparin' the different monsters we'd seen and realized how silly we were actin'. I was winnin' until Sarah Jane told me she'd seen the Loch Ness monster. Though now I'd beat her, havin' met and beaten the Devil."

"The Devil?" asked Martha, disbelief clear in her voice. "As in Satan?"

"Well, it certainly liked to think so," Rose rolled her eyes. "The Doctor called it an archtype, something that the general idea of the Devil of every religion was based on. What was your first trip in the TARDIS?"

Martha grinned. "We went to the past and met Shakespeare and the witches that likely inspired the witches in Hamlet."

The two traded stories deep into the night, drinking more tea than was necessarily healthy and laughing until their stomachs ached.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

The next morning Jack wondered aloud to the Doctor what _the girls_ might have been doing for so long to be still asleep, a suggestive grin on his face. The Doctor scowled and told him they'd been talking and that he'd heard the laughter in the console room for hours.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I actually like this second version better than the one the I lost, which is a ctually a first for me.

Anyway, happy Idependence Day, Finland, even though the President f***ed up and has the Presidental palace under renevation and holds the Independence Day reception at Tampere... (As you can probably tell, I'm not happy about it...)

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

Clearing away the paradox machine and fixing the damage the Master had done to the TARDIS required time and many different trips to recalibrate the time streams. The TARDIS also needed a pit stop in Cardiff but it was put off for a while as Martha used the numerous trips to thank people who'd helped her during the Year that Never Was, everyone from Professor Docherty to the woman in Siberia who'd let her spend the night. She also tracked down Tom Milligan to a hospital in north London, but she wasn't exactly sure how to approach him just yet.

Rose used the time to catch up with Jack who had so many stories to tell, so many friends he'd had, so many brothers and sisters and lovers. Even a daughter and a grandson, living in London at the moment. He was a little hesitant in talking about them, like he hadn't talked about them for a long time, but Rose could hear the love and pride in his voice. He also talked about his team, the sourly Owen, the sweet Toshiko, the lively Gwen and the loyal, lovely Ianto.

"You an' him, eh?" she asked with a teasing grin. "Tell me more!"

"Well, the only reason I hired him was because I helped him capture a pterodactyl that had avoided being detected by our rift monitor," answered Jack. "And he did it all while looking good in a suit. He'd been a junior researcher at Torchwood London. His girlfriend had been halfway converted to a cyberman and he hid her in the basement. It was easy as he took over archiving and no one else wanted to go down there. He'd hidden her for more than six months before everything went wrong. He brought in a specialist to try to help her and she went rouge. She killed the specialist and a pizza girl and me and almost killed Ianto too. In the end… I had to kill her. I suspended Ianto for two weeks and after he came back, we had a case with cannibalistic humans that almost ate him… To tell the truth, that was when I started thinking of him like that. I don't know what it is I feel for him exactly, but… he's different from all the other lovers I've had."

"Maybe you really love him?" offered Rose, smiling slightly. "Never thought I'd see the day Jack Harkness fell in love. You were all over both me an' the Doctor when we first met, you were over everyone. Maybe… maybe he'll tame you."

Jack's smile was warm. "Yeah, maybe. He certainly has me on a leash," he grinned.

"I don't need to know that!" Rose laughed and hit his arm. "But I want to meet this team of yours one day. If, I mean, you're goin' back?"

Jack nodded. "I think I will. I mean, it's my team, I picked everyone on it. I'm really Captain Jack Harkness now. Not the original though, he was a great man. Met him once, just before he died, when the rift was acting up and sending all sorts of people through time. I have responsibility now. Taking care of them… defending the Earth…"

"The Doctor called me the Defender of the Earth when he sent that projection through," she said with a sad smile.

"And how are things between you two?" asked Jack gently.

"He still hasn't told me one way or another," Rose shrugged, sadness coating her voice. "He's distracted himself with repairin' the TARDIS an' I can't ask him if he's avoidin' me. I mean, I know I'm goin' to stay with him regardless of what he wants but… it'd be nice to know either way. To either set my feelings to rest and lock them up or just shag him silly. I mean… five years is a long time and a girl has needs, you know. If he doesn't want it, I'd have to make do with somethin' else. Maybe get a boy toy in every port?"

"Rose Tyler you dirty girl, you," cooed Jack proudly. "You're all grown up!" Then he paused, looking at her and frowning. "Your hair's different, so's your style but Rose, you haven't aged a day since I last saw you on the Game Station. Any idea?"

She shook her head. "Mum's convinced I just got good genes but Pete was more skeptical an' had the Torchwood in his world do some tests. I apparently have some sort of… radiation on me that has stopped my physical agin'. I mean, my cells all regenerated an' my hair an' nails grow an' I still, y'know, have my time of the month, but all the reproduced cells, they're in just as good working order as the previous ones. My brain… it's developin' in ways tha' shouldn't be possible. I'm growin' more memory space an' abstract thinkin' an' empathy but I'm not becomin' some superhuman. We don't know if I'm immortal or somethin', but I'll live longer than a normal human."

"But that's wonderful!" said Jack joyfully. "You can be with the Doctor!"

Rose shook her head. "I don't want him to be with me 'cause I'll live longer than your average human. It wouldn't be good for him. He's got to choose it 'cause I think I can still die an' that hasn't changed. I mean, think how he'd feel, findin' out I could live for who knows how long an' then losin' me on an adventure? It'd kill him."

Jack nodded slowly. "I see your point. I mean, people in the 51st century live naturally some one hundred-and-twenty years but they can all die from poison and mortal wounds and things like that, but the life expectancy is still about forty years longer than now. After getting back there in the future, I'd be really put out if my some future lover died of an unnatural cause after being promised ninety more years… But what if, in a few years, he notices it?"

"If he specifically asks about it, I'll tell him what I know, but not a minute sooner, an' neither are you," she told him, her voice oozing authority.

"Yes ma'am," smirked Jack and mock saluted with a wink.

Rose laughed. "Oh, I've missed you! An' I'll miss you when you're gone again. Say, do you still have your phone?"

"Well, I have a new phone now but the phone the Doctor zapped should be somewhere on the TARDIS. I got transmatted to the Game Station without it. Why?"

"I thought you'd like my number, in case you wanted to talk, an' the TARDIS' number in case of an emergency," she answered with a shrug. "Earth gets into all kinds of trouble all the time an' it never hurts to have backup."

"Point," agreed Jack. "How about you write down the numbers and after I've entered them to my phone, I'll burn the paper. The Doctor probably doesn't want the TARDIS number falling into the wrong hands. I can imagine Owen making prank calls when he's drunk. Can you imagine the Doctor's reaction?"

The image got Rose giggling behind her hand. The Doctor, all serious, answering the phone thinking it might be Queen Elizabeth the Second or Winston Churchill, only to have a raspberry in his ear or someone asking if this was the hot girls' party line or someone ordering ten pizzas with impossible fillings. The Doctor would then get into a philosophical debate with whoever it was calling him about the history of hookers or phone sex or pizza, listing a dozen or so planets on which they were either the norm or forbidden on the pain of death. Which would, in turn, lead to a lecture on how death sentences were ethically wrong and that everyone deserved a chance. (Not a second chance, mind you. He wasn't that sort of a man.)

A few hours later they were in Cardiff, standing on the side of Roald Dahl Plass leaning on the railing, watching the humans walk by, ignorant of what they'd just been saved from. Martha was on the Doctor's right, Jack on his left and Rose on Jack's left.

"Time was, every single one of these people knew your name," Martha said thoughtfully. "Now they've all forgotten you," she added regretfully.

"Good," the Doctor nodded, satisfied.

"Safer for them," Rose agreed, remembering LINDA and the abzorbaloff.

"Back to work," Jack said and went between the railing beams to the other side.

"I really don't mind though," the Doctor said, looking softer than for a long time. "Come with us."

Jack's eyes met Rose's. "I had plenty of time to think that past year, the year that never was, and I kept thinking of that team of mine," he said, looking at the water tower before turning back to the Doctor. "Like you said Doctor, responsibility."

"Defending the Earth, can't argue with that," the Doctor shrugged, turning to look at the far side of the plass. Then he grabbed Jack's wrist and revealed his vortex manipulator, pointing his sonic at it.

"Hey! I need that!" protested Jack.

"I can't have you walking around with a time traveling teleport. You could go anywhere," he glanced at Jack meaningfully, "twice. The second time to apologize."

Jack took a few steps towards the water tower. "And what about me? Can you fix that? Either of you? Will I ever be able to die?"

"Some time after you arrange the Doctor an' my first date," answered Rose, smiling secretively, eyes twinkling.

"I'm there for that?" Jack asked, interested.

"Both times," answered Rose, wiggling her eyebrows.

"But they were billions of years in the future!" said the Doctor.

"What'll happen to me when I live that long?" asked Jack, earning disbelieving looks from both Doctor and Martha. "Because I keep aging but I can't die. The odd little grey hair, you know? The little laughter line here and there? What do I look in billions of years?" He noticed the Doctor and Martha's disbelief. "Okay, sorry, vanity. I can't help it. Used to be a poster boy when I was kid living on the Boeshane Peninsula. Tiny little place. I was the first one ever to be signed up for the Time Agency. They were so proud of me. The Face of Boe, they called me. Hmm… I'll see you. Rose, I'll call." He turned and disappeared amongst the normal pedestrians.

"No," the Doctor denied.

"It can't be," Martha said, laying her hand on the Doctor's arm.

"No. Definitely not. No. No," he continued denying it before they laughed. He turned to Rose. "How'd you know?"

"I got stuck in an alternate timeline an' met him. We talked about everythin'. He admitted havin' been to the Estate in the nineties to watch me grow up," she smiled. "This him," she nodded to his retreating back, "is both lighter an' more troubled than the one in that time."

"Alternate timeline?" asked the Doctor, arching his eyebrows.

"Findin' you was hard work," she shrugged as Martha went back to the TARDIS. "I got into all sorts of different timelines. You heard me when I first appeared on the Valiant. I really shouldn't repeat them, spoilers an' all."

"You're so sure they're going to happen to me," he teased, looking at her fondly.

"You're the Time Lord, the only one in existence who could affect everythin' like what I saw. Except maybe Donna," she shrugged.

"You keep talking about Donna," the Doctor noticed. "But she didn't want to come with me."

"I don't know what'll happen an' how we meet again, but sometime in the future she'll travel with us," Rose revealed, earning a grin from the Doctor who then led her back to the TARDIS, holding her hand.

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

They were parked outside Francine Jones' house, Martha reuniting with her family, Rose having a relaxing bubble bath in the TARDIS and the Doctor doing some repairs. After a while, they all returned to the console room, Rose in comfortable sweats-and-jumper combo.

"Right then, off we go. The open road!" he said enthusiastically. "There is a burst of starfire right now over the coast of Meta Sigmafolio. Oh, the sky is like oil on water. Fancy a look? Or back in time. We could, I don't know, Charles the Second? Henry the Eight? I know! What about Agatha Christie? I'd love to meet Agatha Christie! I bet she's brilliant." He noticed Martha's subdued demeanor. "Okay."

"I just can't," she said.

"Yeah," he agreed sadly.

"Spent all these years training to be a doctor," she explained. "Now I've got people to look after. They saw half the planet slaughtered and they're devastated. I can't leave them."

"Of course not. Thank you." The Doctor hugged her. "Martha Jones, you saved the world," he said, smiling proudly.

"Yes, I did," Martha agreed with a smile. "I spent a lot of time with you thinking I was second best," she glanced at Rose who pretended to be reading a magazine, "but you know what? I am good. You gonna be alright? Now that you've got Rose back?"

The Doctor grinned, glancing at the woman he was thinking about over his shoulder. "I'm better than alright."

"Right then. Bye, Rose," Martha said, kissed the Doctor on the cheek and walked out of the TARDIS. The Doctor looked around somewhat sadly and fiddled with the console when Martha walked back in. "Because the thing is, it's like my friend Vicky. She lived with this bloke, student housing, there were five of them all packed in, and this bloke was called Shaun. And she loved him. She did. She completely adored him. Spent all day long talking about him."

"Is this going anywhere?" asked the Doctor curiously.

"Yes," snapped Martha. "Because he never looked at her twice. I mean, he liked her, but that was it. And she wasted years pining after him. Years of her life. Because while he was around, she never looked at anyone else. And I told her, I always said to her, time and time again, I said, _get out_. So this is me, getting out." She threw her phone to the Doctor. "Keep that, because I'm not having you disappear. If that rings, when that rings, you better come running. Got it?"

"Got it," he nodded, slightly intimidated.

"I'll see you again, mister. Rose, call if you want some to talk girl talk with," Martha said and walked out without waiting an answer from either TARDIS inhabitants.

The Doctor looked at Rose who looked up from her magazine. "You didn't ask her to leave, or anything?"

His voice was curious rather than accusatory like Rose had expected. "No, she said she'd thought of returning to her normal life after the whole Master thing had been sorted. An' I don't think her mother would have let her come along after the year they'd had."

The Doctor gave her a small smile and initiated dematerialization.

The TARDIS span out of control, shaking and leaving afterimages of Rose, who fell of the jump seat, and the Doctor, who fell to the jump seat and then tried to stabilize the TARDIS.

"Stop that! Stop it! What was all that about, eh? You alright?" he asked, raping the time rotor and glancing at Rose, turning back to the time rotor. "What's your problem, eh?"

Rose got up, using the jump seat to haul herself, and sitting on it, holding her head as the TARDIS felt strange. It was like there were two TARDISes in her mind. One was the one she knew and the other was… younger. It was like when her and the Doctor had gone back in time to see her dad, her mum had been there. She had been Jackie Tyler, her mother, but hadn't known she was her mum. This, with the young TARDIS, was just as heart breaking because as long as she could remember, the TARDIS had enveloped her in a mental equivalent of a loving hug. But the younger TARDIS obviously didn't know her and therefore didn't… love her.

"Something's wrong with her," she said distractedly, as the Doctor tried to understand it himself. Then she stared as the Doctor with the celery as boutonniere entered the TARDIS. But he looked older, like he'd aged thirty years!

"Right, just settle down now," the younger Doctor told the TARDIS, fiddling with the console and bumping to the pinstriped Doctor.

"Excuse me…" the pinstriped Doctor said distractedly as he moved around him.

"So sorry," answered the younger older looking Doctor before turning back to the console.

Then, at the same moment, Rose saw them realize what'd just happened, and they looked at each other.

"What?" asked the pinstriped Doctor.

"What?" parroted the younger Doctor.

"What?!" they demanded at the same time.

Rose face palmed. "You certainly don't change much."

"Who are you?" asked the younger Doctor.

The Doctor grinned slowly. "Oh brilliant! I mean, totally wrong. Big emergency, universe goes bang in five minutes, but brilliant…!" he said, trying to look at the younger Doctor from every angle, fidgeting on the balls of his feet.

"I'm the Doctor. Who are you?" demanded the younger Doctor.

"Yes you are. You are the Doctor," agreed the Doctor giddily.

"Yes, I am. I am the Doctor," the younger Doctor said, trying to stifle his annoyance.

"Oh good for you, Doctor. Good for brilliant old you," grinned the Doctor.

"Is there something wrong with you?" the younger Doctor wanted to know and Rose bit back a giggle.

"Oh there it goes, the frowny face! Rose, I remember that one! Mind you, bit saggier than it ought to be. Hair's a bit greyer. That's because of me, though. The two of us together has shorted out our time differential. Should all snap back in place when we get you home. Be able to close that coat again. But never mind that! Look at you! The coat, the crickety cricket stuff, the stick of celery. Yeah. Brave choice, celery, but fair play to you. Not a lot of men can carry off a decorative vegetable."

"Shut up!" snapped the younger Doctor. "There's something very wrong with my TARDIS, and I've got to do something about it very, very quickly, and it would help, it really would help, if there wasn't some skinny idiot ranting in my face about every single thing that happens to be in front of him!"

"Oh… Oaky… Sorry, Doctor," the Doctor said, smacking his lips.

"Thank you," the younger Doctor said and turned around, catching sight of Rose sitting on the jump seat for the first time. "So nice to see you again, my dear. What are you doing here? You said you were looking for a future me."

"Found him," smirked Rose and pointed at the Doctor.

"What? This skinny idiot's me?" asked the younger Doctor and turned to the Doctor, disbelief clear on his face. He snorted and turned back to Rose, hat in hand. "I don't understand why you didn't stay with me or the black haired me with the recorder. We would have taken care of you. This me's obviously an idiot."

"Maybe," chuckled Rose, "but he's my idiot."

"Oi!" protested the Doctor indignantly before chuckling. "Though I can't deny it. Except the idiot part. I happen to be quite brilliant, I'll have you know."

The younger Doctor looked between them and Rose could easily pinpoint the moment he realized things weren't normal between them, normal for him and his companions, that is. It was like watching a sunrise or the storm clouds dissipating. She could practically see the denial and hope and questions swirling in his head, fighting for dominance in the front of his mind, and for him to fall back to logical thinking, trying to make sense of it, trying to figure out the hows and whys and whos. He put his hat on the console and frowned, trying to piece it all together.

"About that," the Doctor said, looking at Rose. "I've been meaning to talk with you-"

The TARDISes sounded an alarm and the younger Doctor rushed to see what it was about, talking aloud about how it looked like a temporal collision and how it seemed two TARDISes had merged, even though there was obviously only one TARDIS present. A paradox like that could blow a hole in the time vortex the size of Belgium, which he found rather undramatic.

The Doctor offered him his sonic screwdriver. "Need this?"

"No, I'm fine," the younger Doctor denied, glancing at the sonic curiously.

"Oh no, of course, you liked going hands free, didn't you, like: _Hey, I'm the Doctor. I can save the universe using a kettle and some string. And look at me, I'm wearing a vegetable_," the Doctor deadpanned, putting his sonic away.

"Like you're so much better," scoffed the younger Doctor, looking at the Doctor up and down but turned back to the readings on the screen.

"Oh, but I am," the Doctor said smugly. "Rose chose to come back to me rather than stay with you."

"You…!" the younger Doctor turned to him, fuming. "Oh, meeting myself is…" he gritted his teeth. "This is always so pleasant," he said, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

The alarm rang again.

"Boys, that's two minutes to Belgium," Rose sighed, rolling her eyes. She was just waiting for the two Doctor's to take them out and start measuring. The TARDISes were laughing in her mind at their behavior, even as the younger TARDIS made friends with Rose, getting to know her mind.

"That's bad," the younger Doctor agreed and frantically tried to do something to save them.

The Doctor on the other hand just pouted. "I remembered you were more polite," he whined and looked at Rose with puppy dog eyes. "You like me better though, right? Even if I'm rude and not ginger?"

"Don't be silly," Rose admonished him. "I'll always like the current Doctor most. If I see you regenerate, I'll like that you most. I'll miss this you, but I'll like the new you most."

"Rooose," he managed to moan before the cloister bell rang.

"The cloister bell," the younger Doctor said with horror.

"Right on time. That's my cue," the Doctor said cheerfully and ran around the console.

"In a minute we're going to create a black hole strong enough to swallow the entire universe!" the younger Doctor cried, terrified.

The Doctor looked around the time rotor. "Yeah, that's my fault actually. I was rebuilding the TARDIS, forgot to put the shields back up. Your TARDIS and my TARDIS, well, the same TARDIS at different points of its own time stream collided and whoo, there you go, end of the universe, butterfingers. But don't worry," he said, holding his hands up calmingly before rushing into action, "I know exactly how this all works out. Watch. Venting the thermobuffer, drawing the helmic regulator, and just to finish off, let's fry those zeiton crystals."

The younger Doctor wrenched the Doctor's hands away from the controls. "You'll blow up the TARDIS!"

"No I won't. I haven't," denied the Doctor. "I wouldn't, not when Rose is onboard."

"Who told you that?!" demanded the younger Doctor hotly.

"You told me that," grinned the Doctor and wrenched free, finishing frying the zeiton crystals.

Everything whited out for Rose and mentally she felt the younger TARDIS start to fade back to her own time. She sent the ship one last loving mental embrace which was accepted and returned, though not as strongly as by the older TARDIS, who often cradled Rose's mind like a mother would a child.

When she could see again, the two Doctors were just standing there, the Doctor grinning and the younger Doctor looking at him with clear disbelief.

"Supernova and black hole at the exact same instant," the younger Doctor said.

"The explosion cancels out the implosion," the Doctor continued.

"Matter remains constant," finished Rose, having guessed the answer.

"Brilliant, Rose, as always," the Doctor grinned at her and she felt the normal wave of pleasure at being called brilliant by him. "It's brilliant."

"Far too brilliant," the younger Doctor said and turned to look at the Doctor. "I've never met anyone else who could fly the TARDIS like that."

"Sorry mate, you still haven't," revealed the Doctor as he went around his younger self, gathering Rose close to himself and nuzzling her hair.

"You didn't have time to work all that out. Even I couldn't do it," argued the younger Doctor.

"I didn't work it out. I didn't have to," the Doctor pointed out like it was obvious.

"You remembered," realized the younger Doctor.

"Because you will remember," Rose said, leaning her head on the Doctor's shoulder, smiling contently. It was the first real physical contact aside from hand holding they'd done since the Master died.

"You remembered being me watching you doing that," the younger Doctor said with awe. "You already knew what to do because I saw you do it."

"Wibbly wobbly," grinned the Doctor, letting go of Rose. "Timey wimey!" they said at the same time and the Doctor attempted to high five his younger self who didn't return the gesture. With a pout he turned to Rose who, indulgently, high fived him. Then he turned back to the console and spoke to his younger self. "Right, TARDISes are separating. Sorry, Doctor, time's up. Back to long ago. Where are you now? Nyssa and Teagn? Cybermen and Mara and Time Lords in funny hats and the Master? Oh, he just showed up again, same as ever."

"Oh no, really?" frowned the younger Doctor. "Does he still have that rubbish beard?"

"No, no beard this time. Well, a wife," the Doctor needled his late nemesis.

"Doctor!" scolded Rose with a frown.

"Oh, I seem to be off," the younger Doctor said, looking around. "What can I say? Thank you Doctor. It was marvelous to see you again Rose, and it is good to know you're in good hands."

"Thank you," the Doctor said with a small bow and satisfied smile, having proven himself to his past self as someone who could take care of Rose. (In truth it was her taking care of him but he'd do what he could for her. And no way was he admitting it aloud. Even to himself.)

"I'm very welcome," said the younger Doctor with a light smile, starting to vanish, but the Doctor hurriedly flipped a few switches and he solidified again.

"You know," the Doctor said and handed him his hat back, "I love being you. Back when I first started at the very beginning, I was always trying to be old and grumpy and important, like you do when you're young. And then I was you, and it was all dashing about and playing cricket and my voice going all squeaky when I shouted. I still do that," he said loudly, voice squeaking, "the voice thing. I got that from you. Oh, and the trainers," he lifted his converse covered foot to rest on the console, "and," he added and put on his glasses. "Snap. Because you know what, Doctor? You were my Doctor," he said softly, grinning.

The younger Doctor smiled back, having put the hat back on and now tilting it. "To days to come."

"All my love to long ago," Rose said with an impish grin and a wink, and kissed his cheek just before he vanished, blushing.

"Oh, Doctor, remember to put your shields up," the younger Doctor's voice echoed around the TARDIS as Rose felt the younger TARDIS finally disappear from her mind.

The Doctor punched a round button and turned to Rose, but before he even managed to open his mouth, they heard a ship horn blow in close vicinity and both the Doctor and Rose lost their balance, falling to the grating as the TARDIS shook as a ship punched a hole in her console room, showering the Doctor and Rose in bits and pieces of the TARDIS coral.

"What?" coughed the Doctor and crawled from under the coral shrapnel that had buried him. "What!" he shouted, looking at the ship helm. He turned over the life belt in front of him, reading the text on it. "What," he repeated, completely mystified.

Rose coughing behind him caught his attention and he jumped up immediately to help her, not letting go of the life belt.

"What was that?" asked Rose after she had dusted herself off some. Silently the Doctor handed her the life belt in his hands, his eyes twinkling with the familiar lust for adventure.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Hello! I know it's been a while, but much has happened since I published anything. For one, I've got a new laptop. For another, I've now moved to England for a year. The next month I'll probably be very distracted, settling down and getting the hang of things, but I'll try to write as much as I can during my free time.

Yes, I know I skipped over the Voyage of the damned but I've never really liked it. I'll reference to things that happened during it in the next few chapters and some things happened differently and will have consequences, mainly in how the characters react to different things.

Also, only one review for the last chapter? Shame on you!

'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'*'

Rose squirmed as she sat on the closed toilet seat.

She'd been there for seven hours already, having hidden separate from the Doctor so that they'd cover more ground, so to speak. He said he'd hide in some supply closet a few floors down and to text him if she got caught.

So here she was, sitting in a cubicle with noting to entertain herself with save her super phone and the internet. She couldn't even listen to music because then she'd leave herself vulnerable in case someone came in to look for her. Not that she was very aware of the current top 40 or had had much time to listen to music recently (try since she met the Doctor). There had been a few live concerts during her travels but they were to see bands and singers who had long since died (Elvis) or broken up (the Beatles). She had no idea of the current boy bands (the Doctor refused to let her near too good looking men, she figured he was jealous) or what Robbie Williams was doing at the moment or who the new hot female artist was. She also had no idea of the current day time telly or celebrity gossip, so the Doctor had used it as another reason for her to stay in the TARDIS the day before because she would have had no idea of what the others were talking about had someone mistaken her for their coworker and asked her what she thought of the last episode of EastEnders.

Well, he'd used it along with the fact that she'd hurt her knee during their last adventure and wouldn't have been able to run had they been found out.

As soon as he had come back, he'd admitted one of the Adipose employees had flirted with him and he'd looked at her with his wide eyes so repentant, like he thought she'd blame him for someone flirting with him. It would have been a completely different thing if she'd seen him start the flirting for no reason at all, but when retrieving information or on the receiving end of flirting, they'd agreed not to hold it against the other. (They, however, were not held responsible for what they'd do to the flirting party. By now he'd already given one bloke a black eye (the arrogant businessman on the starship _Titanic_) and she'd slapped some floozy on a far away planet.) He'd assured her he'd told the woman he was taken and wouldn't be playing "health and safety" with her. And then he'd proceeded to show her just how much he'd missed her while he was away.

Then, with the list of customers, he'd left her back on TARDIS again to monitor alien activity in close proximity to the addresses he'd fed into the TARDIS' system. It had been a good idea too, because a few streets from where the Doctor went, there was a spike in an alien signal and Rose called him, telling exactly what was happening. Then his own alien-o-meter went off and he'd hung up on her and chased after the signal.

A phone ringing brought Rose back from her thoughts and she heard a woman in the cubicle on her right whisper to here phone about being in a church, praying. She got the feeling the Doctor and her weren't the only ones investigating Adipose Industries.

The restroom door was opened and Rose could discern three sets of footsteps, one light footed woman and two heavier men. "We know you're in here, so why don't you make this nice and easy and show yourself?" the woman said in a falsely saccharine voice.

For a second Rose thought she meant her but then she realized the woman had no reason to suspect her. She hadn't been there before, and they had no camera surveillance on the bathroom and the Doctor had assured her that he had roused no suspicion in anyone the day before.

With that thought she flushed the toilet, put on her most innocent face and got out of the cubicle, looking at the woman.

"Ms. Foster!" she yelped in faked surprise, empathizing her accent. "I just finished my 'undred-an'-first customer's paperwork! I 'ad ter go before I went 'ome. I'll just… wash my 'ands an' go! I swear I didn't mean ter stay 'ere this late, please don't fire me!"

Ms. Foster, the woman, blinked at her in obvious surprise, not having expected any workers to still be there. "Well, hurry up then, we have a spy here."

"Yes Ms. Foster," Rose said and washed her hands quickly, eyeing the guards' guns from the corner of her eye. Discreetly, as she walked by them, she used her magnetic screwdriver to jam them. They'd no longer hurt anyone.

She hid amongst the workstations, crouching down and keeping the walls between herself and Ms. Foster, the guards and the woman they were frog marching between them. The woman they'd caught, the spy, was complaining loudly, but wasn't the woman Rose had heard whispering to the phone in the bathroom. Three different investigations at the same time? And all of them hiding in the same bathroom? What were the chances of that?

Soon the bathroom door opened again and a familiar ginger woman exited. Rose peeked over the frame and frowned at her back as Donna Noble stealthily followed Ms. Foster. Was this how Donna and the Doctor met again?

Rose turned her attention back to her task: hacking into the computer frame of Adipose industries. It was better for her. Because of her knee, which the Doctor said would be all healed up in a few more days but until then, she was stuck doing the "safe" jobs. She snorted at that. There was no such thing as a "safe" job when with the Doctor. In all likelihood, she'd be caught in the next half hour.

Soon enough she was in and on the executive level. She found the intended time frame for the birth of millions of Adipose. Adipose were, apparently, life forms made out of living fat and they'd lost their normal seeding planet, Adipose III. Ms. Foster was in charge of planting enough Adipose in human hosts and then taking care of them until the nursery arrived. Rose found all the cloak and dagger of the whole plot rather pointless, because if the chance had been offered to humans openly, most would have agreed anyway because they'd still have lost weight. Of course, since it was still rather early in Earth's development and Earth was still a level five planet, it should have been disguised as a government experiment or something, but still. She downloaded all the important looking files to a memory stick the Doctor had soniced for her (it was faster and had much more memory space than a normal early 21st century memory stick).

Just as she was closing down the computer, two parties arrived from different directions to the office space. The Doctor and Donna were running from the direction of Ms. Foster's office and Ms. Foster and the guards came from the staircase.

"Hi honey," Rose said and hurried to stand by the Doctor's side, seeing Donna glance at her curiously.

"Rose!" he grinned, delighted. "Did you get it?"

"Of course," she smiled, held up the memory stick and they turned their attention to Ms. Foster.

"Well then," Ms. Foster said, taking off her glasses, her eyes lingering on Rose, recognizing her from earlier, "at last."

"Hello," said Donna, giving a jaunty little wave.

"Nice to meet you, I'm the Doctor," the Doctor said and then pointed at Rose. "And this is Rose."

"And I'm Donna," Donna added.

"Partners in crime," sniffed Ms. Foster disdainfully. "And evidently off-worlders, judging by your sonic technology."

"Oh yes, I've still got your sonic pen," remembered the Doctor and took out a sonic device that did remind Rose of a pen. "Nice, I like it. Sleek, it's kinda sleek." He showed it first to Donna who agreed and then he showed it to Rose.

Rose snatched it out of his hand and looked it over herself. "I guess you use it to sign your real name which would be…?"

"Matron Cofelia of the Five-Straighten Classabindi Nursery Fleet," Ms. Foster said and then added: "Intergalactic class."

"A wet nurse, using human as surrogates," summed Rose. She glanced at the Doctor. "The Adipose have lost their breeding planet."

"What do you mean lost?" the Doctor asked, looking at her before turning to look at Matron Cofelia. "How do you lose a planet?"

"Oh, the politics are none of my concern," the Matron said indifferently. "I'm just here to look after the children on behalf of their parents."

"What, like an outer-space super nanny?" scoffed Donna in disbelief.

"Yes, if you like," agreed the Matron.

"So…" Donna took a deep breath and mimed holding a ball with her hands, "so those little things they're, they're made out of fat, yeah, but that woman, Stacy Campbell, where was nothing left of her."

"Oh, in a crisis the Adipose can convert bone and hair and internal organs. Makes them a little bit sick, poor things," the Matron explained.

"What about poor Stacy?" demanded Rose and Donna t the same time.

"Seeding a level 5 planet is against galactic law," the Doctor reminded the Matron.

"Are you threatening me?" she asked, taking it the wrong way.

"He's tryin' to help you!" cried Rose, finally having had enough of hard headed aliens who never understood.

"This is your one chance; cos if you don't call this off, then I'll have to stop you," the Doctor said, taking hold of Rose's hand. He didn't like making promises like that and she knew it, because they most often came true. He warned everyone but because they didn't listen, he had to… dispose them. And each and every death that happened was another burden on the Doctor's heart.

"I hardly think you can stop bullets," the Matron scoffed and the guards took aim.

"She's bluffin', I jammed those guns earlier," Rose said quietly to the Doctor who nodded unnoticeably, letting go of her hand.

"No, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, one more thing before… dying. Do you know what happens if you hold two identical sonic devices against each other?" asked the Doctor, holding out his hand to Rose who obeyed the unvoiced request and put the sonic pen in it.

The Matron looked at them for a second before answering. "No."

"Nor me, lets find out!" declared the Doctor gleefully and pointed the two sonics at each other, triggering them. It created an awful noise and Rose covered her ears, gritting her teeth but being thankful that the Doctor had the sonics pointing slightly away from her and Donna and at Matron Cofelia and the guards who were covering their ears too. The sound broke the glass railings beside the Matron and the guards and from the corner of her eye Rose saw Donna push the Doctor while trying to still cover her ears.

The shove jarred the Doctor enough to dislodge the sonics and he grabbed Rose's hand, squeezing the sonic pen between their hands.

"Come on!" shouted Donna and they ran off, running around the glass incased area to the staircase and a few floors down to the supply closet the Doctor had been hiding in earlier. Rose had to take the stairs slowly because her knee hurt, but otherwise didn't slow them down. The Doctor started clearing out all the supplies and Rose threw out the ladder.

"Well, that's one solution. Hide in a cupboard. I like it," Donna said sarcastically.

"Yeah," Rose grinned at her, looking up. "You'll be doin' it a lot if you'll come with us. I mean, alon' with the runnin'."

The Doctor ignored their chatting, concentrating on emptying the supply closet enough for the three of them and then opened the back of the closet, revealing a big and complicated green machine wired into the wall.

"Hacking into this thing, cos the Matron's got a computer core running through the center of the building. Triple deadlocked. And now I've got this," the Doctor spoke quickly and held up the sonic pen, "I can get in." Something blipped on the green tinted screen. "She's wired up the whole building. We need a bit of privacy," he said and connected two sparking plugs.

"What was that?" demanded Rose.

"Electricity, just enough to stun the guards, nothing more," answered the Doctor, glancing at her with a smile which she returned. "Why's she wired up the tower block? What's it all for?" he asked and fiddled with the cables, wearing a frown.

"_Inducer online_," a computerized female voice announced.

"You look better," Donna said, looking at him while he continued fiddling and Rose went the door to check that the guards really weren't coming. "Older, but better."

"Thanks," grouched the Doctor, glancing at her and then at Rose who came back to stand by his side.

"How long ago did you find her? Rose I mean?" Donna asked, glancing at the mentioned woman who pretended to be engrossed in whatever it was that the Doctor was doing.

"Me? Find her? No, no, she found me," answered the Doctor. "She's brilliant like that. And it was two months ago, linear time for us. Before that I had Martha Jones. She was brilliant too… but I destroyed her life."

"You didn't, just changed it drastically," Rose corrected. "Her mother, on the other hand, I'm not so sure of. I think she would have been better off not knowin' how big the universe really is."

"Yeah," he agreed and glanced at Donna again. "Weren't you going to travel the world?"

"It's easier said than done!" Rose told him. "I mean, you can travel free of charge anywhere in the universe but travelin' on Earth costs money an' to get money people have to work."

"I know that," he pouted at her.

"It's like I had that one day with you and I was gonna change. I was gonna do so much. Then I woke up next morning, same old life. It's like you were never there. And I tried. I did try, I went to Egypt. I was gonna go barefoot and everything. And then it's all bus trips and guidebooks and don't drink the water and two weeks later you're back home. It's nothing like being with you. I must have been mad turning down that offer," Donna hinted not so subtly.

"What offer?" asked the Doctor, frowning at her.

"To come with you," said Donna slowly.

"You'd come with us?"

"Oh yes, please!" grinned Donna. "As long as Rose doesn't mind?" she said, looking at Rose questioningly.

"You're more than welcome! Then we'll out number him completely, even if he says he gets two votes because he's a Time Lord," Rose grinned and leaned to whisper to her behind the Doctor, knowing he'd hear because of his superior physiology. "Of course, TARDIS is the one who actually decides where we'd go, but shh, don't tell the Doctor that."

"_Inducer activated_," the computerized female voice interrupted Donna before she got to voice her disbelief of the Doctor doing something like that.

"What's it doing now?" Donna growled irately.

"Ms. Foster's started the program!" said Rose, sounding worried.

"_Inducer transmitting_," the computer announced and the Doctor who'd been working quickly before, became frantic.

"So far they're just losing weight, but the Matron has gone up to emergency pathogenesis," he said, running his fingers through his hair.

"But that's when they start to convert bones an' organs!" Rose realized. "You've got to cancel the signal!" she said and started going through his pockets, looking for the "18 carat gold pendant."

"Wrong side!" he cried and Rose dove between him and the computer to the other side, her hand inside his right hand jacket pocket.

"Got it!" she announced, triumphant, and pulled it out, already twisting it open for him when he snatched it from her.

"This contains the primary signal. If I can switch it off the fat goes back to being just fat," he said and hooked the revealed chip to the computer.

Just few seconds later, the computer announced: "_Inducer increasing_."

"No no no no no, she's doubled it, I need... Haven't got time! It's too far, I can't override it! They're all gonna die!" the Doctor shouted, tugging on his hair.

"Is there anything I can do?" Rose heard Donna ask but she was already running as fast as she could to the office area to get another pendant. Her speed was impended by the pain in her knee and as she ran up the stairs, she stumbled because of a bad step, her knee twisting, and the pain increased even though she didn't fall. Limping the rest of the way she gritted her teeth and wrenched open the closest set of drawers, grabbing one of the still packed pendants. She ripped it open as she limped back to the stairs and slid down the banister to save time. Once on the right floor, she ran again, trying to ignore the pain in her knee.

Just as she crashed back into the supply closet with the ripped open back when they all heard a loud horn somewhere above them.

"What the hell was that?!" demanded Donna, looking around.

"I'd call it the nursery," said Rose, breathing hard, glancing at the second capsule now hanging from the computer. Donna must've had it. She winced as she took a step forward, putting weight on her right knee.

"Fine. When you say nursery you don't mean a creche in Notting Hill," Donna sighed, resigned.

"Nursery ship," the Doctor nodded.

The computer lit up again. "_Incoming signal_." It started spewing something in an alien language that sounded even with the TARDIS translating like some very accented English, very French sounding English.

"Hadn't we better go and stop them?" asked Donna with disbelief when the Doctor just continued listening.

"Hang on, instructions from the Adiposian First Family," he shushed her. "She's wired up the tower block to convert it into a levitation post." He listened to the message intently. "Oh. Ooh. We're not the ones in trouble now. SHE is!" He turned and offered his hand to Rose.

"Can't, my knee…" she said regretfully. "I'll meet you back at the TARDIS."

"But…" he said, eyes wide. "But… the end is the best part! And I want you there!"

"But I really can't climb those stairs an' the lifts are locked. Go with Donna, show her how wonderful it can be!" she encouraged him. "If you don't run now, you're gonna be late."

For a second he looked like he would argue but then he sighed and his shoulders slumped. He took her by shoulders and kissed her chastely on the lips. "See you at the TARDIS. We'll take another look at that knee then. Come on, Donna!"

Rose watched them run to the stairs and disappear up them.

The walk to the TARDIS was slow and painful, even with the staircase banisters making her way down easier. She could have been there in five minutes if she'd been hale and in ten minutes had it been her ankle, but since it was her knee, it took her close to fifteen minutes to limp to the TARDIS who kindly opened the door to her at a mental plea from Rose. With a sigh of relief she sunk to the jump seat and gingerly massaged her knee.

It took another ten minutes for the Doctor and Donna to arrive and when the TARDIS' door opened, the Doctor was carrying a bunch of bags.

"She packed?" she called, the humor in her voice obvious.

"She's got a hatbox," the Doctor answered with disbelief and set down the duffle bag and the tote he'd been carrying before turning to get more of her baggage. "Even you didn't have a hatbox!" he complained as he came back with a hatbox and a rollaboard.

"I've never been one for hats," she grinned, her tongue between her teeth as she watched him go back for more baggage and Donna came in, chatting excitedly.

"Do I need injections though, do I? Like when you go to Cambodia, is there any of that? Cos my friend Veena went to Bahrain, and..." she noticed Rose. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just hurt my knee a few days back an' all the runnin' today hasn't done it any favors," Rose answered. "It's a funny old life, in the TARDIS. Sometimes you get hurt an' end up in the wrong place but nothin' beats the feelin' of a different ground beneath your feet or a different sky above your head or seein' all those creatures an' horizons… All those sunsets long ago or long from now…" She smiled gently and pretended not seeing the Doctor in the doorway looking at her, listening in on the conversation. "I've never regretted goin' with the Doctor. But, in know there was a time Martha regretted it, when she ran from a psychotic Time Lord all across Earth."

"Do you think that'll happen again?" asked Donna, frowning.

"Nah, the Master was killed," Rose shook her head. "But that's it. Travelin' with the Doctor is unpredictable. You'll have to run for your life with him, more often than not, an' your morals will be called to question. You'll wonder if what you're doin' is right, if there's a better way of doin' things. The Doctor's not human so things that are obvious to us, might not be to him. He needs someone to hold his hand an' remind him of the good things in life. An' to stop him sometimes. To tell him he's wrong."

"Rose is good at that," the Doctor said, setting the latest of Donna's baggage. "Her second trip on the TARDIS and she told me point blank I was wrong. Mind you, she'd been lecturing me since the third time we met when I forgot about her boyfriend."

Something about Donna tickled something in the back of Rose's mind and she frowned at her. "Hey Donna. I had some trouble findin' himself an' jumped all over his timeline when I was comin' back an' I may or may not have run into you a few times. So… if you run into me an' I don't know you, could you act like you don't know me, alright?"

"Okay?" said Donna, obviously confused, but followed the Doctor back out as he went to get the last of Donna's bags.

"Rose is right. The last time, with Martha, like she said... it got complicated. And that was all my fault. I just want a mate," Rose heard the Doctor say.

"You just want TO MATE?" she heard Donna shrike in disgust. "Haven't you got Rose for that?"

"I just want **a** mate! A bestie!" the Doctor corrected. "I love Rose and she's the best, but I've traveled with different people for so long that, every now and then, I want someone new along, because after a while, people get used to it and I love seeing others' reactions to new things."

Rose giggled quietly and remembered the few first trips she'd witnessed as a "seasoned" TARDIS traveler. There had been Adam and Jack and Mickey and now there'd be Donna. And probably many more in her future, that is unless she got killed.

Contently she watched the Doctor come back and Donna run off to do something about her mother's car keys, returning with a curious frown. She pointed at Rose. "I just saw you outside. I told you to tell my mother what bin it was that I left the car keys in."

Slowly the memory came to the front of Rose's mind. It had been the very beginning of the dimension cannon testing, well, middle. They'd managed to pinpoint the correct universe but were still fine tuning the where and when it landed. She'd been the only tester, the only one willing, really. She'd wanted to find the Doctor more than live alone for the rest of her long, natural life.

She'd been there just in time to see the little white things start to emerge and then fly up. She hadn't stood still, just watching, but rather walked around, trying to find the Doctor. Of course, she'd had no idea what was going on and there had been no explosion to go to, so she'd really had no idea what to do. Then she'd seen the crowd and went to see what was going on, asking a few questions from the confused police officers, but they hadn't known any more than her, even less actually. Then the ginger woman, beaming, had told her to tell the tall blond woman "that bin there." It had been one of the less confusing, more forgettable jumps, so she hadn't really thought much of it.

She hadn't even known the woman had been Donna.

"Off we go, then!" Donna said with a grin.

"Here it is, the TARDIS. It's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside..." the Doctor said, sounding like a professor, repeating a lesson he'd already held many times.

"Oh, I know that bit. Although frankly, you could turn the heat up," she said with an exaggerated shiver.

Rose laughed. "It's just that the TARDIS isn't used to you, she doesn't know your personal temperature preference yet. Give her a few days."

"You talk about it like it's alive," Donna said with wonder.

"That's because she is," answered Rose, looking at the time rotor fondly.

"So, whole wide universe, where do you want to go?" the Doctor butted in.

"Oh, I know exactly the place," said Donna confidently.

"Which is?"

"Two and a half miles, that way," Donna said, nodding north-west. "My grandfather should be there, up the hill, looking at the stars and waiting for aliens. I told him to shout for me if he ever saw a little blue box. He's the one I want to know."

As soon as they'd waved Donna's grandfather goodbye and gone to the vortex, the Doctor turned to Rose. "How's the knee?"

"Swellin' an' tender to touch," Rose answered honestly. "I can barely put any weight on it an' movin' it hurts."

He came around the time rotor and scooped her up to his arms easily. "Quick tour Donna, follow me," he said over his shoulder and walked deeper into the TARDIS. On the way to the infirmary he pointed out the main galley, the library, the media room and the corridor with the most bedrooms, leaving her there to find a suitable room for herself while he took Rose to the infirmary.


End file.
